Hertz has paused plans to buy tens of thousands of battery-driven cars from Polestar this year, the head of the electric vehicle brand said, after a collapse in resale values last year caused the rental giant to taper its electric ambitions.

In 2022, Hertz agreed to buy 65,000 Polestar cars over five years in a deal likely worth $3bn as part of its ambition for EVs to make up a quarter of its rental fleet by the end of 2024. It also struck a deal to buy 100,000 Tesla cars.

But late last year, following a collapse in the resale value of EVs and citing higher repair costs than expected, Hertz said it would sell some of the Tesla cars it purchased and that it would not meet the 25 per cent EV target. It did not comment on the state of its relationship with Polestar at the time.